Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence
In the long-term absence of major disturbances ecosystems enter a state of retrogression, which involves declining soil fertility and consequently a reduction in decomposition rates. Recent studies have looked at how plant traits such as specific leaf mass and amounts of secondary compounds respond...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3493489 2023-05-15T17:44:52+02:00 Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence Asplund, Johan Sandling, Aron Wardle, David A. 2012-11-08 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493489 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145078 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049081 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493489 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049081 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2012 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049081 2013-09-04T15:41:22Z In the long-term absence of major disturbances ecosystems enter a state of retrogression, which involves declining soil fertility and consequently a reduction in decomposition rates. Recent studies have looked at how plant traits such as specific leaf mass and amounts of secondary compounds respond to declining soil fertility during retrogression, but there are no comparable studies for lichen traits despite increasing recognition of the role that lichens can play in ecosystem processes. We studied a group of 30 forested islands in northern Sweden differing greatly in fire history, and collectively representing a retrogressive chronosequence, spanning 5000 years. We used this system to explore how specific thallus mass (STM) and carbon based secondary compounds (CBSCs) change in three common epiphytic lichen species (Hypogymnia phsyodes, Melanohalea olivacea and Parmelia sulcata) as soil fertility declines during this retrogression. We found that STMs of lichens increased sharply during retrogression, and for all species soil N to P ratio (which increased during retrogression) was a strong predictor of STM. When expressed per unit area, medullary CBSCs in all species and cortical CBSCs in P. sulcata increased during retrogression. Meanwhile, when expressed per unit mass, only cortical CBSCs in H. physodes responded to retrogression, and in the opposite direction. Given that lichen functional traits are likely to be important in driving ecological processes that drive nutrient and carbon cycling in the way that plant functional traits are, the changes that they undergo during retrogression could potentially be significant for the functioning of the ecosystem. Text Northern Sweden PubMed Central (PMC) PLoS ONE 7 11 e49081 |
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Research Article Asplund, Johan Sandling, Aron Wardle, David A. Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence |
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Research Article |
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In the long-term absence of major disturbances ecosystems enter a state of retrogression, which involves declining soil fertility and consequently a reduction in decomposition rates. Recent studies have looked at how plant traits such as specific leaf mass and amounts of secondary compounds respond to declining soil fertility during retrogression, but there are no comparable studies for lichen traits despite increasing recognition of the role that lichens can play in ecosystem processes. We studied a group of 30 forested islands in northern Sweden differing greatly in fire history, and collectively representing a retrogressive chronosequence, spanning 5000 years. We used this system to explore how specific thallus mass (STM) and carbon based secondary compounds (CBSCs) change in three common epiphytic lichen species (Hypogymnia phsyodes, Melanohalea olivacea and Parmelia sulcata) as soil fertility declines during this retrogression. We found that STMs of lichens increased sharply during retrogression, and for all species soil N to P ratio (which increased during retrogression) was a strong predictor of STM. When expressed per unit area, medullary CBSCs in all species and cortical CBSCs in P. sulcata increased during retrogression. Meanwhile, when expressed per unit mass, only cortical CBSCs in H. physodes responded to retrogression, and in the opposite direction. Given that lichen functional traits are likely to be important in driving ecological processes that drive nutrient and carbon cycling in the way that plant functional traits are, the changes that they undergo during retrogression could potentially be significant for the functioning of the ecosystem. |
format |
Text |
author |
Asplund, Johan Sandling, Aron Wardle, David A. |
author_facet |
Asplund, Johan Sandling, Aron Wardle, David A. |
author_sort |
Asplund, Johan |
title |
Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence |
title_short |
Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence |
title_full |
Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence |
title_fullStr |
Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lichen Specific Thallus Mass and Secondary Compounds Change across a Retrogressive Fire-Driven Chronosequence |
title_sort |
lichen specific thallus mass and secondary compounds change across a retrogressive fire-driven chronosequence |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493489 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145078 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049081 |
genre |
Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493489 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049081 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049081 |
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PLoS ONE |
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7 |
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11 |
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e49081 |
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